As time progresses, more and more people are using computing systems, desktop computers, laptop computers, computers linked to cloud servers, tablets, mobile computing devices (e.g., smart phones), and other types of computing systems. Electronic data, e.g., information or file(s), are saved on a user's computing system and at some point in the future, it is inevitable that the user desires to transfer the electronic data to another computing system, either belonging to him or to another.
There currently exist many different methods to transfer electronic data from one computing system to another system. Each method has its characteristics, which play out as advantages or disadvantages. When a user desires to transfer electronic data wirelessly, additional considerations come into play, for many the most significant issue, aside from the establishing of the communication between the computing systems, is security for the transfer so that electronic file is safe guarded from source computer system to destination computer system.
One communication method for wirelessly transferring files from one computer system to another is Near Field Communications (“NFC”). NFC has an operating range of one to two centimeters, thus, two devices communicating using NFC method need to be very close together. NFC is a type of close proximity communication methods. More and more mobile communication devices are incorporating (“NFC”) capabilities. NFC is a short range wireless technology designed for three core capabilities: The first is peer to peer connection, where two NFC devices can communicate with each other. The second is card emulation, where the NFC device can emulate an NFC card. The third is NFC Tag Read/Write, where the NFC device can read from or write to an NFC tag. An NFC tag is a type of close proximity identification medium that can be uncoupled or have a coupled connection to a computer system. The mobile communication device uses a close proximity communication method such as NFC, to read the tag and receive the unique dynamic ID. An NFC reader is example of a coupled connection. Transferring data using NFC between mobile communication devices is relatively simple and relatively secure (due to inherent requirement of the devices having to be located very close to each other.) However, it is more complicated for a computer system to securely transfer data via NFC.
To date most computer systems—computer systems that are not mobile communication devices—do not include NFC capabilities; thus, at the very least, the computer system must have an NFC device connected to that computer system in order to communicate using NFC. Adding NFC to a computer system can be costly. Additionally, adding an NFC device can be difficult to employ; for example, in situations where a physical environment restricts setting up a connected device that may require a coupled connection or power between the NFC device and the computer system.
Other methods of wirelessly communicating between a computer system and a mobile communication device would require multiple steps that lack the simplicity of NFC communications. Communication methods, such as sending an email or connecting via a local network connection to a user's device, require a multi-step pairing process.
For example, when completing a visit to a Doctor's office, a person is provided the opportunity to schedule their next appointment. The traditional method of receiving the scheduled appointment from the office is to receive a little card that has written the time and date of the next appointment. As the current method to add a digital entry into a phone has a user manually entering all of the details of the appointment data into phone it is not uncommon nor unexpected that an appointment card gets lost before the person adds the appointment to their personal calendar. This approach also demands the use of paper products that could be saved. It would generally be easier to wirelessly receive the calendar data and then select an option to save it into the user's phone's calendar system. Traditional methods of digitally sending this data to a phone are complex, where the user would have to either give the person providing the schedule the user's email address or they would have to pair wirelessly to some network or cloud based system, which can take multiple steps, and be vulnerable to security issues.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a relatively simple, low cost, secure method of wirelessly transferring electronic data between computer systems.